Random Escape Stuff - Not a Full Review

[JamieLogical]

 

I really didn't take enough photos or notes to write up a full review of our 10/14-10/21 Escape sailing to Bermuda. So this is kind of like a big dump of all the info I can remember, some random thoughts, some random photos, menus, and dailies.

 

First off, a little background on this sailing and why we chose it. I went on my first cruise back in February. I had never been on a cruise before and probably never would have gone on one, because the idea just didn't appeal to me. But my partner had committed to going on a cruise with his buddy for his buddy's birthday before we met. So, I thought I would give it a shot! My partner had been on one cruise before with Princess for his honeymoon with his ex-wife about ten years prior. So he was VERY excited about going on a cruise with me, but I just didn't get what the big deal was.

 

Well, we went on our cruise on the Escape to the Western Caribbean and I LOVED every second of it. I came home obsessed with cruising, determined I was going to live on cruise ships when I retire, and the rest is history. By the time we got off the Escape in February, we had already bought CruiseNext certificates and booked the Bliss for this coming February. We have since sailed on the Gem to Canada & New England back in June. Then, when that cruise was over, I couldn't stand the thought of waiting eight more months to sail again, so I started searching for another cruise in the interim. This sailing to Bermuda on the Escape seemed perfect because it cut the time between our Gem sailing and our Bliss sailing neatly in half, it was cheap, it was a Latitudes Rewards sailing, and it was on the Escape, which we already knew we loved.

 

We went ahead and booked it in late June. Then came my next mission, convincing my parents to join us. I have a whole other thread about that here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2560571-help-me-convince-my-parents-to-join-us/

 

Needless to say, my parents relented so this was their first cruise.

 

I am going to post this in a few separate chunks. So more to come...

[JamieLogical]

We drove from our home in Rochester, NY to NYC. My parents had driven up from PA the night before and stayed at out place so we could all drive to the port together. We got up at 4:00 am so we would all have time to get ready and were on the road shortly after 5:00. We had pre-paid via SpotHero to park at Pier 83 (about 2.5 blocks from the cruise pier), but we arrived, their parking was full, so we had to park at their overflow parking at Pier 81, which added another couple of blocks to our walk. It was still no big deal really. We were parked by about 10:20.

 

At the cruise pier, it was complete chaos. I have never seen it like that. The Escape and two Aida ships were all in port at the same time and all seemed to be unloading at once. You couldn't even get in to drop your bags with the porters because there were so many people streaming out. Finally we just left our bags in the GIANT pile next to the luggage carts (all the luggage carts were already overflowing) and prayed we'd see them again someday.

 

Once we actually got up to the check-in level (quite the feat in all the chaos with very limited elevators) we got through security really quickly. We then got split up from my parents for the actual check-in, because they were dividing it up by deck and my parents were on Deck 10, while we were on Deck 13. As we were split up, we vowed to meet back under some blue signs hanging from the ceiling. My parents were directed to the first check-in area as you enter, while we were sent all the way down to the far end of the building, which had me worried about meeting back up. But the line moved quickly, we were checked in easily, and we got back down to our meeting area before my parents were even through. We had been giving boarding group 23. My parents had been given boarding group 26. But then some random stranger came up to them and gave them a card for boarding group 3! We all used their one card and were among the first on board. As we were boarding, we chatted with a woman near us and it turns out she is from Rochester too. Her name was Jane and she was cruising by herself for the first time since her husband passed.

 

We quickly went to amend our specialty dinner reservations (my partner and I had booked two dinners before my parents agreed to come on the cruise, so we needed to change our reservation from two to four). That was quick and easy. We went over to the Shore Excursion Desk to try to sign up for the Behind the Scenes Tour, but we found out it is $79 per person if you aren't a Platinum member, and my dad is super cheap, so we opted not to do it. Then we headed up to O'Sheehan's for lunch. There was a line to be seated, but plenty of tables. Service was predictably slow, but we weren't really in any kind of a hurry. Everyone enjoyed their lunch and the people-watching as everyone came on board.

 

After lunch, we took my parents on a tour. We started on the highest deck first and who did we run into? Jane! This became quite a theme for the cruise. We ran into Jane everywhere! We only made it down to Deck 8 on the tour by the time our rooms were ready. So we went with my parents to their room so we could see their initial reaction to it. They were very pleased with the room and their balcony (they had a mid-ship balcony on deck 10). We then split up for a bit so we could check out our own room. We arranged for my parents just to come up to our room whenever they were ready to explore some more. Our room was one of the angled balconies on deck 13, so I wanted them to see how much more room the angled balconies have.

 

Soon after that, we had our Muster drill and were split up again. We had installed the new Cruise Norwegian app, which I found to be MUCH better than the old iConcierge app. I was happy to see it was working on the Escape for our sailing. We used it to make reservations for the four of us in the Manhattan Room for dinner, so we all agreed to go our separate ways for sail away and then meet up for dinner.

 

More to come....

[maggie1968]

Very nice..looking forward to more..Thank you!!

[daniella1279]

Love all your info! We will be sailing on the Escape in a little over 2 weeks! I'm getting super excited and can't read enough on her!

 

[JamieLogical]

My luggage had already (miraculously!) arrived at our room before dinner, so I was able to change into my one dress for the Manhattan Room. I know that all the MDRs on the Escape are informal, but I always like to dress up for the Manhattan Room and the Specialty Restaurants. Turns out, we all got our luggage just fine, despite the chaos at the pier. We had a lovely (though slow) dinner and my parents were very impressed with the food and the service. (Throughout the entire cruise, my parents couldn't say enough about the service.) My dad even wrote down the name of our waitress so he could fill out a Vacation Hero card for her.

 

After dinner, we went our separate ways again with promises to call each other in the morning. My partner and I headed down to Headliners to try to catch Howl at the Moon, because we hadn't done it at all on our first Escape sailing and I had read/heard nothing but rave reviews since then and felt bad about missing out. It was a ton of fun and got really packed by the time we called it an early night (we'd been up since 4:00). We were sad my parents missed it and vowed to tell them to check out one of the shows later in the week.

 

Monday, Day 2, we had our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet at noon in the District Brew House. We called my parents in the morning and agreed to do our own things for breakfast and just meet up at DBH at noon. This reminds me to talk about one of my FAVORITE things about cruising NCL. I had no idea about this on our first Escape sailing, so didn't start doing it until we were on the Gem. Breakfast room service is free! Only "continental breakfast" items are free, but this include all "cold" items like cereal, fruit, yogurt, and pastries plus coffee, tea, milk, and juice. This allows us to have "first breakfast" of coffee, pastries, and cereal every morning on our balcony in our pajamas before we get showered and dressed and go out for a bigger, hot "second breakfast". To get your first breakfast, you fill our this card and hang it on your door before you go to bed the night before. As long as you don't choose anything from the "Specialty Selections" section, it's completely free.

 

 

Our delivery was actually early most days and, unlike on the Gem, they did not call ahead. We were just awoken by a knock on the door most mornings. But that was still fine. Also, there seemed to be some confusion about listing a number 2 on the line for coffee. We meant this as "coffee for two", but sometimes they actually brought us two carafes of coffee.

Edited October 25, 2018 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

This reminds me that we had an amazing Room Steward named Ferdinand who introduced himself to us the first day. We had left him a note requesting more regular coffee pods, more white sugar, and an extra bath towel. He brought us all of those things and kept us well supplied all week. He was also CRAZY apologetic the one time we returned to our room in the late morning and it hadn't been made up yet. What a sweetheart.

 

Okay, getting back on track. Monday, Day 2, we had our "second breakfast" at O'sheehan's. I love the corned beef hash there. At noon we met up with my parents for the Meet & Greet, which was really nice. We got some lovely seats by the windows, there were over 100 people there easily, lots of people introduced themselves and told me I look exactly like my CC profile pic, servers handed out flights of beer and snacks, and several of the officers came around and chatted with people in small groups. It was a neat experience. A little later in the day we had our Roll Call's Slot Pull in the casino. There were something like 62 people participating, so it was pretty chaotic. After our first round of pulls, we had something like $17.30 per person (we started with $20). I actually had the biggest win of any of the pulls with a $150 spin of a bonus wheel. Some people decided to cash in at that point, but the rest of us decided to do another round. After that round were were woefully low on funds, but decided to try our luck with the pot at roulette. We lost horribly, but it was a lot of fun!

 

Monday night was our After Midnight reservation at 7:30 so my parents just met up with us there so we were on our own for the afternoon and dinner. After Midnight was pretty good. I think we all enjoyed it. I wouldn't rave about it, but it was definitely enjoyable and there were some really great moments in it.

 

Stay tuned...

[Beer Belly]

June 3rd to Bermuda on the Escape was my first.....I'm hooked....not ready to sell the camper, but itchin' for the next cruise

[cathi007]

Thanks! Looking forward to more, I am sailing her on Jan 20th. Did you make it to the casino?

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, Beer Belly said:

June 3rd to Bermuda on the Escape was my first.....I'm hooked....not ready to sell the camper, but itchin' for the next cruise

 

I haven't managed to plan or take another land-based vacation since I started cruising. We already have the Bliss booked in February and the Encore Inaugural Transatlantic next November (11 days plus we will likely do a few days in London before). Plus, I am trying to figure out when my sister and I might be able to go on a cruise with just the two of us sometime in between those two cruises....

[mapleleaves]

you mention a couple of times about 'calling your parents'.   

How did you do that ? did you use whatsapp? or the ncl app ? Did you have the wifi pkg ?

[JamieLogical]

I am a little fuzzy on what order we did things on the sea days, so I think I will just talk about the restaurants and shows, rather than try to remember when we did what.

 

I think Monday night my partner and I tried out Food Republic for dinner, because we weren't meeting up with my parents until 7:00 for After Midnight. We went right when they opened at 5:30 so we would have plenty of time. We were the first ones there and got lovely seats near the windows, which were perfect for watching the beautiful sunset.

 

 

 

The food was pretty good, though not really my thing. I'm not big on sushi. I very much enjoyed the firecracker shrimp. I was a little disappointed with the Chorizo Scotch Egg. I am a HUGE fan of scotch eggs and the idea of one made with chorizo sounded amazing, but the chorizo didn't have much flavor to it. The service was great and it was neat that all of the food is prepared right there, rather than in some central galley.

 

 After we finished eating, we went and sat on a comfy couch on the Waterfront to watch the rest of the sunset. The assistant hotel director came around with some staff and asked us how we liked the cruise so far and we told her about how great Ferdinand had been. She asked our room number and the next day we have chocolates waiting for us in our room!

Edited October 25, 2018 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

6 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

you mention a couple of times about 'calling your parents'.   

How did you do that ? did you use whatsapp? or the ncl app ? Did you have the wifi pkg ?

 

No we just called them on the room phones. Calls between staterooms are free and you can leave messages for each other.

[JamieLogical]

Tuesday is a blur. I am sure I spent a fair amount of time in the casino. I know we met up with my parents for dinner at Cagney's, the first of the specialty dinner reservations we had with them. We asked to be seated on the Waterfront and we were. They never seem to OFFER Waterfront seating as an option. You have to ask. But they did seem to have plenty of tables available outside. I am soooooo happy we sat out there, because we ended up getting to see another beautiful sunset and the weather was absolutely perfect. I think it was a great experience for my parents as they really seemed to enjoy the venue and the food. My dad was in his element, because they had such "normal" options on the menu.

 

I believe it was after dinner that evening that we got my parents to come with us to Howl at the Moon and they had a great time. My dad left early to try to see the ship arrive in Bermuda. Side note here. We were not scheduled to dock in Bermuda until 6:00 pm on Wednesday. This sailing had originally been for Florida & The Bahamas, but was switched to Bermuda back in February-ish as far as I can tell from the Roll Call. When that switch occurred, NCL could not get berthing in Bermuda until late Wednesday, instead of early Wednesday morning like they would on a typical Bermuda sailing, so we were basically short one full day in Bermuda. However, there was a medical emergency on board that forced us to RACE to Bermuda in order to medically evacuate someone. So we booked it to Bermuda and arrived on Tuesday night, almost a full 24 hours before we were scheduled to dock. We did not dock, just transferred the person to an emergency boat and then sailed back out to see, well west of St. George and then back to King's Wharf for our scheduled docking time of 6:00 pm Wednesday.

 

Anyway, my dad wanted to try to see them unload the person who was having the medical emergency, so he skipped out of Howl at the Moon pretty early. My mom hung out with us for a while longer. It was a ton of fun again. Definitely do not miss it! After Mom decided to head to bed, my partner and I wandered around a bit, ended up at the 80's Party in Spice H2O for a bit, and finally called it  a night.

[JamieLogical]

Tuesday might have been the day my partner and I ate at Margaritaville for lunch. It was a nice venue, but they gave us WAY too much food! They insisted I order an appetizer and entree. I got the nachos, because I had heard good things, and also got the Rancho Deluxe Burger. They were both great, but just SO MUCH FOOD. I had to get my dessert (Key Lime Pie) to go and I ended up in a food coma when I got back to the room. I really wish they would just make Margaritaville a la carte, rather than the cover charge. Would definitely be nice to go there for a couple of things and not feel like you have to eat everything to "get your money's worth".

 

I believe Wednesday we ate at Pincho Tappas for the first time for lunch. We had missed it on our first sailing on the Escape, but heard/read so many good things since then that we were really looking forward to trying it (just like Food Republic). It did not disappoint! We got a lovely seat outside on the Waterfront. Got to chat with Jane again as she happened to walk by (forgot to mention the ten other times we had run into her again before this!) I think we ordered way too much, because we kind of wanted to try everything. My favorite bite of food on the whole ship was here. We had ordered the "Mixto" cheese platter, which came with beautifully sliced green apple and a little dish of caramel sauce. I discovered that combining some caramel and some of the Queso de Cabra on a slice of apple made for a HEAVENLY bite of food. I could not get enough of it. Even went back later in the week to order more.

 

Sorry this picture cuts off the side of the menu:

[JamieLogical]

Wednesday night was kind of a disaster and I ended up in tears! First, I hadn't planned for us to go ashore at all, because were weren't arriving in King's Wharf until 6:00 pm and I had read online beforehand that all the shops close at 6:00 there. I knew my parents wouldn't want to go onshore for dinner when we could eat for free on the ship. So I went ahead and had made reservations for all four of us a La Cucina for dinner at 6:00 and then the Brat Pack in the theater at 8:00.

 

Well, as we were being seated (again on the Waterfront!) at La Cucina, the captain announced that people were now allowed to go on shore and that the mall there was staying open until 8:00 pm for us! Then we came to realize that they had changed the La Cucina menu. I had specifically picked it because I knew the only "non-American" food my dad liked was Lasagna. Well, guess what had been removed from the menu! He finally settled on some pepperoni pizza "without the green stuff" (basil), but not shockingly, it wasn't the world's best pizza. Luckily the other three of us all greatly enjoyed our meals. My mom had basically made it her mission on this cruise to eat seafood at every meal, because my dad hates seafood, so they never go anywhere that offers it. So for La Cucina, she had some pasta with shrimp and was very happy.

 

Here's the new La Cucina menu so you guys won't be caught off guard like we were:

 

[JamieLogical]

Things turned from bad to worse when we went to see the Brat Pack. We were actually a little worried about getting decent seats, because we cut it close on time by the time we finished up with coffee and dessert at La Cucina. We ended up getting what we thought would be great seats about 10 rows back from center stage. Boy were we wrong!

 

When we first sat down, there where some lights above the stage panning back and forth over the audience and when they panned towards us, they were blindingly bright. But we thought, "no big deal", they would turn those down/off once the show started. So we sat looking at each other and the floor for the 15-20 minutes before the show started. But once the show started, it actually got MUCH MUCH worse. The stage was covered in lights that pointed directly into our eyeballs. It was pure, unadulterated torture. If you have ever seen the Star Trek Next Generation episode where Captain Picard is tortured (There are four lights!), you will get it. I spent the entirety of the 7-ish minutes we stayed paying zero attention to the actual songs or performance because I was just constantly worrying and wondering about when the next time they blinded me would be. I need to state here, that I have no unusual sensitivity to light. I have no issues with strobe lights. But this was literally physically painful. My eyes still HURT for a good half hour after we walked out. When I closed my eyes, all I could see was light flashes. It was like holding your cell phone flashlight about 10 inches from your face and then just randomly flashing it on and off at various intervals and for various lengths of time.

 

Well, after that disappointment, my parents decided to just go on shore for a bit. I ended up in the District Brew House with my partner, crying, because I was worried my parents were having a miserable time.

[JamieLogical]

Thursday started off looking like another disappointing day. It was pouring down rain. We were supposed to meet up with my parents at 9:00 or 9:30 to go ashore, but we ended up postponing until around 10:30, iirc. On the way off the ship, my dad dropped $3 on a poncho, so he basically guaranteed us it wouldn't rain the rest of the day.

 

We went onshore and immediately purchased public transportation day passes for $19 each. The original plan was to take the ferry to Hamilton then take a bus to the Crystal Caves. We had to wait kind of a long-ish time for the next ferry, because we had delayed getting off the ship due to rain and missed the one we had planned on taking. The boat ride to Hamilton was just fine. It started to rain again pretty heavily as we approached, but by the time we docked, it had let up again.

 

We walked around Hamilton a bit, ducking into an indoor mall. We eventually found a little diner to eat lunch at called The Spot. The proprietor came along and introduced himself to us. He had been born on the island, his mother having been a "unsuspecting tourist" who had been "captured" by his father, who was a local. He had owned and operated The Spot for something like 43 years? Our waitress had worked there for 34 years! The food was fine. Nothing to write home about. But it was still a cool experience and we definitely weren't going to find any more reasonably priced food on the island.

 

After lunch we walked to the bus terminal and caught a bus that we had planned to take to the Crystal Caves, but we soon all agreed we wouldn't bother with stopping there. We ended up taking it all the way to St. George. The bus ride was everyone's favorite part of our day in Bermuda. We got a pretty awesome tour of the island, got to see the amazing houses and scenery, and our bus driver was basically like a fun tour guide, even though he was just a public bus driver! He was awesome.

 

We walked around in St. George, looking in some of the shops. We got a cup of coffee at a cute little cafe. And then we took the fast ferry back to King's Wharf. When I say "fast ferry", I mean FAST! It was basically like taking a speed boat, with all of the accompanying tossing and turning and choppiness. It was SO MUCH FUN. My adrenaline was really pumping by the end.

 

I can't believe we got all of that enjoyment and entertainment out of a $19 public transportation pass. Some people paid a lot of money for organized excursions!

 

My parents seemed to really enjoy the day. We got back to the ship around 4:00 and then we ran into them at Savor for dinner. It was so funny. We asked for a table for two... got taken to our table, and it was literally directly next to my parents who were already seated. So we just joined them at their table (they were at a four-top) and had a lovely dinner.

 

Here's a bonus photo of my parents when we arrived back at the ship being photo-bombed by an ad with a lemur in it:

[DebQ5]

28 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Wednesday night was kind of a disaster and I ended up in tears! First, I hadn't planned for us to go ashore at all, because were weren't arriving in King's Wharf until 6:00 pm and I had read online beforehand that all the shops close at 6:00 there. I knew my parents wouldn't want to go onshore for dinner when we could eat for free on the ship. So I went ahead and had made reservations for all four of us a La Cucina for dinner at 6:00 and then the Brat Pack in the theater at 8:00.

 

Well, as we were being seated (again on the Waterfront!) at La Cucina, the captain announced that people were now allowed to go on shore and that the mall there was staying open until 8:00 pm for us! Then we came to realize that they had changed the La Cucina menu. I had specifically picked it because I knew the only "non-American" food my dad liked was Lasagna. Well, guess what had been removed from the menu! He finally settled on some pepperoni pizza "without the green stuff" (basil), but not shockingly, it wasn't the world's best pizza. Luckily the other three of us all greatly enjoyed our meals. My mom had basically made it her mission on this cruise to eat seafood at every meal, because my dad hates seafood, so they never go anywhere that offers it. So for La Cucina, she had some pasta with shrimp and was very happy.

 

Here's the new La Cucina menu so you guys won't be caught off guard like we were:

 

Thanks so much for posting these pictures!  This was going to be the first time we tried La Cucina, but I honestly don't see anything appealing on that menu, other than some of the apps... might be looking to change our reservation!

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, DebQ5 said:

Thanks so much for posting these pictures!  This was going to be the first time we tried La Cucina, but I honestly don't see anything appealing on that menu, other than some of the apps... might be looking to change our reservation!

 

I had three apps for my meal and it actually worked out really well. I did the Gnocchi (which is the same as they had before and absolutely delicious), the Tortellini, and the Ravioli. All were quite good. And they will give you an entree-sized portion of any app if you prefer that to an entree. I just did three of the app-sized ones and it was plenty for me.

[brookie848]

Really enjoying reading your review. On our upcoming cruise we have two nights scheduled and La Cucina and two nights scheduled in Cagney's. I'm not thrilled that the item we often order is no longer on the menu at La Cucina. I have a feeling that they took off my husband's and friend's favorite thing off the Cagney's menu as well. 

 

We'll make the best of it, but I'm not loving these new menus and they make it more difficult for my husband who is picky and on a restricted diet (not the best combination). 

[willsears94]

Love hearing from you! You always have a nice perspective on things!

 

Escape is such a wonderful ship with nice features like the District, Howl at the Moon, Food Republic, and Pincho Tapas. 

 

Slightly sad to see the menu at La Cucina. Guess that means we may be dining twice at Cagney's, potentially

[JamieLogical]

Thursday evening, after our dinner at Savor, we went to the Levity Comedy Show in the Theater. We hadn't managed to get reservations for any of the comedy shows in Headliners, so this was our chance to see both of the acts in one show. It was fantastic. Even the opener was really great. I was dying laughing and had a really great time. Found out my parents had attended as well and they also enjoyed it.

 

Friday we didn't do much onshore. We just walked around the Dockyard and went to the little mall there. I was content to spend most of the day on the ship. I can't remember what we did for lunch....

 

In the evening we had our reservation at Moderno. I didn't know what my parents would make of it, but my partner and I were really excited. We love Brazilian Steakhouses and the one here in Rochester is super pricey, so we only go a couple of times a year. We always make sure to hit up Moderno for "free". My mom loved it. She loved the atmosphere and the "salad" bar and everything. Our waitress was a riot. She had such a sense of humor! She was great and I immediately went to Guest Services and filled out a Vacation Hero card for her after our meal. My dad only likes his meat cooked medium-well to well, so there was an entirely separate server who brought over options for him, rather than him taking cuts of meat from the skewers as they came around. It was so nice that he received such personal attention!

[JamieLogical]

Saturday my partner and I ate our last lunch at Pincho. We were sad to think we don't know the next time we'll be on the Escape again and we won't have Pincho on the Bliss and probably not the Encore either. Friday night we hit a storm and were going through it most of Saturday. The ship was rockin' & rollin' and everything outdoors were closed, so we had to eat at one of Pincho's very few indoor tables.

 

For dinner we had a truly lovely meal at The Manhattan Room. We had seen in the daily that a live band would be playing from 5:30-6:30, so we made a reservation for 5:45 and it was fantastic. The music was perfect for the atmosphere. The band handled the pitching of the ship well. I was having trouble looking straight at them, though, because you could see the horizon rising and falling intermittently behind them through the large aft windows. We were seated on the wood floor area (they had about half the dance floor covered with extra tables) and my chair actually slid on the wood a few times from the movement of the ship!

 

But the sun started peeking through the clouds right as it was setting and we were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen in my entire life. My parents even saw a rainbow off their balcony!

 

 

[JamieLogical]

After dinner we went to see the Magician perform in the Theater. We hadn't wanted to spring for the up-charge of the Supper Club, plus we already had a lot of dinner plans on this sailing, so this was our only opportunity to see him. He was quite funny and some of his magic was pretty impressive. Some of it, though, was really gross and I couldn't watch it. I have never been able to handle the tricks like sword swallowing and the like. Be warned, some of his stuff was in that vein.

 

The magic show was immediately followed by the salute to the crew, which we very enthusiastically stuck around for. The crew on the Escape is just so great. The fact that they are so helpful and accommodating and chipper through it all makes it such a joy. I don't know how they do it! The genuinely seem to WANT to please you. Not like it's just their job, but that they derive actual happiness out making others happy. So we cheered loudly and boisterously for all of the crew and staff that came up on stage.

 

Speaking of crew, there were two a few other events we attended throughout the week that involved the crew. We went to a Q&A with the Hotel Director and Restaurant Manager early in the week. That was pretty interesting. We also went to a Q&A with the Captain and Chief Engineer on the last day and was really really cool. I will never get over the logistics that go into running a ship of that size. It was fascinating to hear some of their personal experiences and truly impressive how knowledgeable they are about all aspects of the ship. Plus they played a really neat video at the beginning showing the Escape being built at Meyers Werft.

 

One other really fun crew activity we attended was the Crew Talent Show. It's amazing to me that they find the time to practice and have so much true talent on board that aren't even part of the entertainment staff. One of the women who danced was the ship's tailor. It hadn't even occurred to me they would have a dedicated tailor on board, but of course they would! Two of the Cruise Director's crew closed the show with a truly amazing dance routine. I ended up filling out a Vacation Hero card for all of the participants. It's nuts that they would take their personal time to practice for that show and perform in it for all of us.

 

Coming up tomorrow... All of the Dailies! (Sorry, it will take me a while to get them all posted.)

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by JamieLogical

[DebQ5]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I had three apps for my meal and it actually worked out really well. I did the Gnocchi (which is the same as they had before and absolutely delicious), the Tortellini, and the Ravioli. All were quite good. And they will give you an entree-sized portion of any app if you prefer that to an entree. I just did three of the app-sized ones and it was plenty for me.

That's a good point... I'll run it by the others and see what they think.  Thanks again!